


Wearing Your Heart On My Sleeve

by phantomgasm



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomgasm/pseuds/phantomgasm
Summary: Danny's romantic soulmark has been filling with pink for years without him ever having met anyone that could possibly be his soulmate, or so he thinks.(This work is a secret santa for ArchangelC137 - or, Archangel on the pomp pep discord server. if i accidentally gifted this to the wrong person, feel free to tell me and i'll fix the issue ;w;)
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Vlad Masters
Comments: 9
Kudos: 120
Collections: Pompous Pep Discord - Jack's Secret Santa 2020





	Wearing Your Heart On My Sleeve

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ArchangelC137](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArchangelC137/gifts).



> I tried my hardest to make this as sweet as possible, though there is light angst at the end. I also added different types of soulmarks, tried to make it interesting but may or may not have made it too complicated.
> 
> also the "oc" is a random carnival scam artist i used to further the plot, she doesn't even have a name so you dont have to worry about her taking the spotlight from pomppep.

Danny groans as he follows the adults past all of the dumb carnival gimmicks, hands fisted into his pockets. There, just below the joint of his dominate wrist, are the symbols every human is born with. They start out black, a dark shade of coal indicating that the soul-connection hadn't been fulfilled yet. Then, once the proper person is met, one will glow, indicating your bond with them.

The little shape of hand holding, one of the platonic ones, is splattered with colors of purple and red. Sam and Tucker's purple and red. Underneath it, a set of four circles is there, filled with Jazz's light blue, Mom's teal, and Dad's orange. And right below the start of his palm, is a mostly blacked out heart.

_Mostly._

It's got the shade of violet nearing the point of the heart, filling it up three-quarters of the way with it's pink glow. It started when he was fifteen, so tiny he could barely see it. At the time he was convinced it had to be Paulina- which, of course, is an idea he dropped after she and her boyfriend finalized their marks. Now, he currently has no idea who it could be, considering that he doesn't hang out with many people who's romance marks aren't filled in.

Mom and Dad are completely puzzled by it as well. They fawned over the idea of it being Sam, despite her obvious purple color on his friendship mark, however, as he got older, all were continously baffled by how the heart continued to fill when no one knew who the person could be. Danny would spend hours poking at it, ignoring that the myth of soulmates feeling it when you touch their mark is false.

Now Dad is dragging himself and _Vlad_ along to this dumb carnival, because apparently they have booths where some scam artist will give you information about your future. And while Mom knows them to be total bullshit, Dad is fixated on the idea that they might help Danny find his romantic soulmate. Vlad is just here because he happened to show up earlier that day and of course he wouldn't miss an oppertunity to humiliate Danny over his soulmark. Dick.

Well, actually. Vlad's been pretty quiet as of recently. After Danny's sixteenth birthday, he seemed to have gotten bored with the whole scheming thing. Which is weird, because he dedicated his whole life to becoming an all-powerful ghost and killing Dad in the hopes that he could be the one to steal that space on Mom's wrist. These days, while he's still an obsessive jerk who won't leave Danny alone...he seems, content to just be mayor and hang around.

He doesn't even flirt with Mom anymore. _And_ he's chilled out on the whole, _gotta kill Jack Fenton_ thing. At first Danny was super suspicious, with Vlad suddenly acting all cool with them and still being a clingy fuck with him, but, eh. It led to Danny getting trained without any evil strings attached, and funny enough, Vlad can be kinda decent to hang out with when he's not acting all loopy. So whatever.

Danny wonders what Vlad's soulmarks are like. He keeps them hidden at all times, wearing wrist covers when he rarely wears short sleeves. As a kid, he thought Vlad covered them because he was embarressed that they were all coal black, but he's older now. There's no way _all_ of his marks are unfufilled. Vlad may not have many friends or a lover, but the small stories he'd told of his family made them seemed like lovely people.

Still, it's pretty sad to think that at some point, his wrist might have had an orange and teal mark upon it. Danny has seen his parents' friendship mark, he knows that a patch of it is a horrid white, indicating the end of a relationship. 

He can't imagine how hard it must be, to look down and see a permanent reminder stained upon his skin that his friends have abandoned him, denounced him. Back when he was a kid, he didn't think twice about calling Vlad a lonely old man. And hey, he doesn't feel entirely _awful_ about it- when you push a literal child to his limits, constantly whispering that you're going to destroy his home life, steal his family, he's gonna end up lashing out!

However, now that he and Vlad are kind of friends...he knows he can never poke fun at the man's loneliness again. He's seen directly how it affects him, nights where he would get odd texts and go to visit his old fruitloop, only to find him passed out drunk on the floor. Clutching Madison the cat like a life line. Danny had been hoping by now that they would make a space for each other on their marks, _platonic of course,_ Vlad would never look at Danny like that no mater-

No matter nothing. He'd been hoping Vlad would be able to look down and see real, firm proof that he has _someone_ out there, someone who cares about him. But it seems the universe has it out for Plasmius, Danny's friendship mark refusing to budge despite his efforts. The young adult sighs at his wrist, mentally cursing whatever spiritual mumbo jumbo that causes soulmarks.

"There it is!" Dad excitedly shouts, black gloved hand pointing at a large, purple and green striped tent. Danny glances up at Vlad, who gives a stiff shrug.

It's not too surprising that Vlad isn't a fan of anything involving soulmarks. Any mention of them would have him snapping and barking in the past; recently, though, he's taken to growing still and visibly uncomfortable. He doesn't even mock Danmy about the strangeness of his slightly filled in, pink mark. Which, is odd, because it's prime teasing material, something Vlad would normally be quick to jump on.

Danny doesn't ask why, though. It's easy enough to figure the reason out without getting into an inevitable fight with the man who likes to play like he's _too strong_ to need comfort. Especially about any topic that might make him feel weak.

"Come on, Dan-o!" Dad hauls him over to the tent, barreling past several people as Vlad follows behind them, muttering apologies as he does. Inside is dark, lit by a few candles scattered around- a fire hazard, honestly- and the woman inside is, well, a sight.

Her hair is wild and pink, her eye contacts looking like the kind Sam buys for cosplay- a vibrant, cartoonish cherry color. Her nose is dusted with blush and her outfit makes her look like some kind of fairy princess.

Essentially; she looks about as serious as you would expect a so-called psychic to look, but _worse._

Danny tunes out most of her introduction, and Vlad seems to be doing the same. Dad is, of course, throwing question after question at her, as she latches on to his easily impressed attitude. After all, the best way for scammers like her to make money, is to find the naïve one of the group.

"So, my son here," Dad wraps an arm around Danny and pulls him close, resulting in the boy boring his unimpressed eyes into the woman's, "his romantic soulmark, it's been fillin' up with pink ever since he turned fifteen. And we have no idea who it is! None of his friends have that color, and he hasn't really been talking to anyone like that." The older man sighs, "It's bothered Danny for years-"

"No it hasn't-"

"And his mother wants to know too! We obviously want grandchildren-"

"You have Jazz for that!"

"And, well, I'm sure it'd just be nice to know who is on Danny's wrist before the whole thing fills up," Dad finishes, completely ignoring his squaking son.

The woman, who Danny has elected to call _F_ _raud,_ smiles at them, amused by their bickering. Her eyes glance all over the three, probably searching for some bullshit explaination or fortune-cookie esque quote she can recite and charge them five bucks for. Palm out, she extends her arm to Dad, "May I see your marks?"

"Of course!" Dad is quick to yank his black glove off, proudly displaying his forearm of colors. Vlad scoffs and rolls his eyes as Dad rambles about his marks, Fraud chuckling when he shows off how many colors are on his family mark.

A sparkly nail points to the green splotch on his arm, "Is that your son's?"

"Why, yes it is!" Dad glances at him with a smirk, as if it would've been hard for her to guess that the kid with a bright green tank-top on had a green mark.

She pulls away, "and you say your son's is pink?" When Danny corrects her with a _violet,_ her hand, so fast Danny barely sees it, darts out and snatch's Vlad's. The man, who'd been too busy staring off into space to stop her, looks like he's ready to tear her head off when she strips his wrist of it's covering and smiles triumphantly. "You don't know how many times this has happened. Really, it's ridiculous- and somewhat offensive- to be ashamed of the person destined to love you."

Danny sees it before Vlad can hide it.

A vibrant, neon green takes up a good portion of the heart on his wrist. Among the coal black and white scar marks, is Danny's color.

Time freezes for a moment. Dad sees it, too, jaw going slightly slack with shock. Vlad's eyes flash crimson, before he breaks the silence and books it. Dad is scolding the woman, while Danny i still processing that the pink on his wrist belongs to Vlad. Like, yeah, it makes sense, his ecto-energy is the same color, and they've known each other for as long as the heart has been filling...

But to think that Vlad might _share_ those feelings? Soulbonds can't be created on unrequited love. Vlad has to, to some extent, see Danny in the same light that Danny has been denying seeing Vlad for _years._ Sure it's not...they're not in love _yet,_ but it's there. Brewing in the both of them.

_But he ran._

He ran, and Danny can't help but feel sick because of it. There are a million reasons why Vlad could have run, but Danny is fixated on the reason he ended up hiding hid feelings in the first place: he still sees Danny as just some dumb kid. Over the years, Danny has matured and filled out, but Vlad would always see him as a reckless, stupid child, and who would want _that_ as their soulmate?

They leave the tent. Dad goes off in one direction to find Vlad and Danny goes the opposite. When he finds a spot away from prying eyes, he goes ghost, Phantom flying into the skies to scan the area.

He finds Vlad sitting atop a nearby building, head in his hands. White boots clack against the roof of it, making their way to the distressed ghost. "Look," Danny starts, "I-I get it, okay? I'm not my mom, I'm not what you wanted. We can just...spend some time away from each other so that the bond breaks and pretend this never happened."

Colbat eyes lift up, meeting his own. Vlad looks confused, eyebrows drawn together, before a scowl replaces his features. "Just say it."

"What?"

_"Say you don't want me!"_ Vlad shoots to his feet, fangs bared, "Say you think I'm a monster, tell me again how I'll always be a _lonely,_ bitter old man!"

Danny feels like a bat has been swung at his ribcage, eyes wide. He hadn't said those things since he was a child, since Vlad had made himself less a terror. Swallowing hard, he realizes that maybe, they both took those words harshly spat at each other in moments of rage to heart, not just himself. "I won't."

"Why not?" Sneering, Vlad takes a few steps further, making himself uncomfortably present in Danny's space. "What? Does it go against your _heroic_ moral code?" Danny winces; pointing out his hero complex is always something that hits him a little too hard. "Nobody wants _this._ It's not like you'd be any different from anyone else. You'd just be saying what everyone is thinking; that Vladimir Masters must be one _pathetic_ monster to have believed that _anyone_ could love him!"

Flinching, Danny takes a step back, eyes screwing shut. He hadn't meant to, he wanted to open up and shout about how wrong Vlad is, but the man's arms swinging around- well, it's not a fun experience for someone who's used to getting thrown against buildings on the daily. Vlad sees this and pulls away, blinking a few times before he mutters, "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"No, it's fine-"

"It isn't, I should've-"

"Really, I'm used to-"

"You shouldn't be-"

This is going nowhere. "Can we just move on? Please?"

Vlad nods, refusing to look him in the eyes. "Right, right."

"I...I won't say it because you're wrong, Vlad. I do care about you in that way," he can feel the blood rushing to his cheeks, and it's his turn to stare at his feet like they've got something wonderful to say. "And even though you were a real prick in the past, you've been really cool, and funny, and it's really nice of you to train me and hang out with me even though I know you think I'm immature and you hate my dad and I want to, I want to um, maybe figure things out if you're willing _butyoudon'thavetosopleasedon'tfeelpressuredto."_

Oh, man, why did he have to inherit his Dad's ability to speak so goddamn fast? That was awful. How is he supposed to translate, _every time you touch my hair or lay your hand on my shoulder it feels like I'm going to explode and I'd be happy to be turned into itty bitty pieces if it meant you'd let me lay my head on your chest_ into words? Not the _in your head_ kind, but the verbal, vocal kind? He can't say that kind of stuff, it's _weird._ And creepy.

Finally, after moments of Danny internally begging Vlad to say something, anything, the quietest, "You really mean that," leaves his lips. "You want...you want _me?"_

"If you'd have me."

Danny looks up, and Vlad's so much closer. He looks confused, confused, but hopeful. "That's-" He cups Danny's face, and Danny nuzzles into the touch. "Okay, yes, I'd...yes." Nodding, Vlad swallows, nervously letting his hand fall to take the younger halfa's. "We should find your father."

The next morning, Danny's heart goes from three-quarters full, to almost halfway filled.

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope you enjoyed! this is the first fic ive ever made for someone else, so im sorry if its a lil wonky or if i accidentally gifted it to the wrong person!


End file.
